The Internet is a world-wide information highway interlinking millions of computer terminals, each having many users. Associated with Internet are various commercially-operated on-line services, such as Prodigy, CompuServe and Online One important use to which internet is put is the retrieval of information from electronic libraries and other data bases, thereby giving each terminal access to a vast treasury of information.
The term lap-top computer originally referred to a microcomputer small enough to be used on a person's lap. But this term is currently applicable to any self sufficient, portable computer that can be carried to any desired site and operated at that site.
It is now known to microwave-link a lap-top computer to an Internet highway in a manner similar to that by which a cellular radiotelephone is coupled to a telephone system. When, therefore, a lap-top computer is linked by a microwave transceiver to an Internet highway it then has access to the same data bases that are accessible to standard computer terminals that are effectively wired into this highway.
In a network in accordance with the invention, a laptop or portable computer that is microwave-linked to an Internet highway is provided with a GPS receiver that determines the exact present location of the individual operating the microcomputer. Thus if the individual is operating the microcomputer at Niagara Falls in Buffalo, N.Y., or at the corner of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street, in New York City, the GPS receiver will so indicate.
GPS refers to a global positioning system formed by a constellation of 24 satellites which orbit the Earth twice a day and continuously broadcast high-frequency radio signals. These signals contain position and time data enabling a GPS ground receiver to determine the location of the receiver anywhere on Earth.
Each point on Earth can be identified by a specific address which represents the exact spot where a horizontal line (latitude) intersects a vertical line (longitude). The basis for GPS technology is precise timing and position information, each satellite broadcasting its time and particular position.
Data bases are now available that have been developed and are maintained by market research agencies. These bases contain the profiles of a multitude of consumers for various types of goods and services. Each profile usually affords a dossier of the individual, giving his age, marital status, credit rating, preferences in food, music and art, taste in clothing and whatever other information is gained in the course of market research.
Thus by scanning a data base containing the profiles of consumers in a certain age bracket living in a given region, one can extract from this data base those consumers in that region who are potential customers for, say an expensive high-fidelity radio, or for a medium-priced automobile. Armed with this information, an advertiser can focus his mailings to those individuals who are the most likely prospects for the advertised products or services.